The above table lists all competitions run during the last year or so (they're clickable links); the ones highlighted with a purple background are running at the moment. This week's threads are at the top with a red pin. World Clock

This year's edition of the FA Cup tipping comp runs for 7 months over 10 rounds from 12th November 2011 until 5th May 2012 (FA Cup Round 1 through to the Final). The Football Association has received entries from 763 teams for this season's FA Cup, comprising 671 non-league teams plus the 92 league teams. The league teams are the 44 teams in the FAPL and FLC, and the 48 teams in League One and League Two.

the qualifying rounds for the 671 non-league teams will be completed today and tomorrow.

the 32 survivors from those qualifiers join the 48 teams in L1 and L2 in the First Round (equals 80 teams).

the 20 survivors from the Second Round will join the FAPL and FLC teams in the Third Round (equals 64 teams).

from there it's a straight knock-out through to the FA Cup Final.

Although there are 10 rounds in the tipping comp we only lodge picks on 8 occasions:

the First Round of 40 games will be split into two rounds of 16 games each by ignoring 8 games.

the Second Round has 20 games .. 4 games are ignored.

the Third Round of 32 games is be split into two rounds of 16 games each.

that's 5 tipping rounds which, with the remaining 5 rounds of the FA Cup, gives us the 10 tipping rounds!

The rules for the FA Cup tipping comp are simple (they're the same as last year):

points

default

upsetsperfect picks

other bonus pts

dead-heats

one point for each correct pick .. home win, draw, away winin other words, it's always at 90 minutes.if you forget to pick, the away teams are all yours (ineligible for bonus pts);but if the wooden spoon score is higher, default is the wooden spoon; default for the semi-finals, the final and advance picks is the wooden spoon score.you score a bonus point if you pick a game solo .. or one of two players.one bonus point for 11+/16; 14/16 or higher receives a further bonus point (plus a knighthood from Her Majesty).no one picks win, whoever picks a draw;no one picks draw, whoever picks the upset win; if you pick all home teams (or all bar one), ineligible for bonus pts.weekly wins vs. wooden spoon countback determine podium finishes;if they're identical, bonus pts will be used.

This year's comp is the 10th edition of the FA Cup tipping comp. Last season's comp was won by KrivoyRog.

b = bonus point for picking 10/16 or better. x = perfect picks or near miss 13+/16. s = bonus pt for picking result solo, or one of three. w = bonus for picking a draw, no one picked winner. o = no one picked draw. Bonus for picking upset win. bp= total bonus points for the year default is WS score if it's more than the aways

The first ever FA Cup tournament was held back in 1872. It is the oldest knock-out football tournament in the world (known as soccer to the rest of us) .. 16 years later the oldest league in the world was formed (everyone plays everyone else home and away), when The Football League was formed in 1888. The record number of entrants for the FA Cup was 656 set back way back in 1922 comp; it remained unbroken for 83 years, when 660 teams entered the 2005 comp. The record has been broken each year since .. the 763 teams in this year's comp is a new record.

The draw for each round of the entire comp is unseeded, and the balls are redrawn from the barrel for every round .. anyone can play anyone. The 671 non-league teams played through Preliminary Rounds x2 and Qualifying Rounds x4 for the 32 spots available in the First Round, alongside the 48 teams in League One and League Two. The 20 survivors from these 80 teams join the 44 FAPL and FLC teams in the Third Round, as follows:

Last year's tipping comp had 18 runners; all of us except one are back for another dose. We have four runners this year: Dizart, rxbigdawg, superhooppete and wwe84. Welcome aboard! The record number of entrants for the FA Cup tipping comp was 18 set in 2004 (equalled last year). We have broken that record with 21 runners this year.

The first round of the tipping comp produced two upsets (one was picked by no-one and one was a solo pick by triviapaul), and one game was picked by everyone. Three players picked 10/16 for a bonus point, and two of them our are early season leaders: N-Bomb and triviapaul. Results for Round 1b will be posted later today.